Ella Down South: A Weekend Away

I was meant to have been describing a holiday to Harpon, a hut on the other side of the Thatcher peninsula; I am not.

I will first go over last week. It was a week full of boating. I managed to pass both Rod and Joe out as launch coxes. This means I now have three backup coxes which makes my life a lot easier and means I can relax a little, not much but a little.I was meant to test Joe on Tuesday when I took Jo out for transhipping paperwork to La Manche (a reefer) and Antarctic Sea (a vacuum krill vessel, which has a net almost permanently in the water from which they suck up the krill that is caught. It means they can haul in much larger catches and less time is lost by ‘shooting’ and hauling the nets). When we launched and headed out to the vessels it suddenly became apparent that not only were we not going to be doing any testing, I didn’t really want to be out on the water at all. The wind picked up suddenly to our operational limits and the direction it was coming in meant that getting Jo onto La Manche was tricky to say the least. We discussed it and I had to promise that if she got on I would be able to get her back off again because La Manche had to leave for Stanley that night and Jo did NOT want to be on her when she left. I managed to get her on but unfortunately due to the size of the swell I was against the wooden rungs of the pilot ladder, not the rubber ones and I managed to break a rung. This meant that I had to get her off from Antarctic Sea which was giving less of a lee (shelter) from the wind and meant that my stern would be to the wind (which always makes things trickier) but after some manoeuvring and testing I managed it and the vessels managed to leave on time without an extra passenger on board.

Harpon is a hut the other side of the peninsula which neither Hazel nor Jo have been to yet. To get there you either have a 4 hour walk (more like 5 or 6 in these snow conditions) over Echo Pass in the middle of the mountains that bisect the peninsula, or you have to go by boat around into West Cumberland Bay and go right down to the very end of it. We were meant to leave on Thursday by boat. This caused a little difficulty for me. I am currently the only boating officer on the island and while I have passed out some very competent RIB coxes and my Launch coxes (all my launch coxes are also RIB coxes) are getting there, if they were to take us round in any but the perfect weather conditions and if anything were to happen then I would feel incredibly guilty and it would have repercussions for future boating officers. Therefore when Thursday dawned foggy and unpleasant with a shocking forecast of wind we decided to postpone till Friday. On Thursday afternoon the Government Officers got a call from the Captain of the Saga Sea requesting permission to bring a crew member ashore for medical treatment. This is one of the reasons that the base has a doctor, to provide medical care for fishermen down here in these treacherous waters. Some vessels have their own doctor (and dentist) aboard but most don’t. Unfortunately she was delayed getting in so our departure was also delayed. Actually it was lucky that it was, since as I went out to collect the ill crew member and the mate (who would translate Russian) the wind proved itself to be too strong for the trip round to Harpon so Jo, Hazel and I made other plans.

We decided that we would head over to Maiviken for a long weekend. Because we were within an hour and a half’s walk from base we didn’t need to take a tent (we slept in the hut) and because there are already sleeping bags there we didn’t need to take our own. This meant that all the food that we had planned to take by boat we could still take because it would just replace the weight of the tent and bags; my pack was still lighter than it has been in a long time when going on holiday.

When Hazel and I go on holiday together three things are known: 1. The weather will be poo, 2. Someone will get ill on base (usually more than one) and 3. We will eat indifferent food (either a pasta sauce that we have pre prepared and we will eat every night for three nights or rat packs). This time was no exception, the weather was poo, poor old Erny came down with a stomach bug and we were planning on pasta sauce. Jo however took it upon herself to educate us in the way of camping food so we took no pre prepared food and had an excellent few days food wise. For ease our way is still better but this was much more enjoyable.

The first night, which was Jo’s birthday, we had a creamy, tomatoey pasta sauce with dried mushrooms and chorizo that Jo had brought with her from her house in Spain. The second night we had chilli con carne made again with dried mushrooms and some excellent dried mince that the Rat eradication project had left us. The third night we had flavoured couscous with dried mushrooms and the last of the chorizo cooked in red wine. It really was incredible.

Unfortunately the bunks in the hut really are very uncomfortable and Jo who has a dodgy back anyway was soon crippled. She managed it well though and we even received visitors from the base in the form of Rod and Nik. After a lovely lunch we then wandered down to the Sealers Cave which I have mentioned before. As we walked it was slightly surreal, the sun was shining merrily (it was an odd sensation to be in direct sunlight all day over the other side of the hills to base) but at the same time snowflakes were floating ever so gently through the air. Out of the wind it was actually very warm, so warm we didn’t have to put an extra layer on when we had stopped so we made tea and lounged around. It was lovely. On the return to the hut we had gin and tonics out in the sun sitting in a ‘snow sofa’ that we had dug out and insulated with roll mats. We only went back into the hut when the sun dipped low and the wind increased.

The second day (Sunday) we decided to brave the wind (which was very strong) and explore a region of lakes up to the left of Deadman’s Pass. We struck out into the wind and sun and had a fantastic morning wandering around a winter wonderland of hillocks and lakes, all disguised by the snow. It is a real pleasure to be able to re-explore places where you have been in different conditions. It is one of the reasons that I never want to live in a place with no seasons, the changes wrought by the weather are incredible. The only downside to the day was the stinging snow flung into our face by 50-60kt winds. Both Jo and I were knocked off our feet at one point (how Hazel stayed up I am not sure, I will say it is because I took the brunt of the gust for her). When we descended a little lower, true to our typically British nature we had lunch sitting on the snowy side of a hill enjoying the sunshine and stoically ignoring the occasional gust of wind that blew the cheese off our oatcakes.

On Monday we returned to base but not before we spent a delightful morning down on the beach collecting Fur Seal poo for Daniel. He has to collect poo to check what they have been eating to verify theories about the effect that the fisheries have on the ecosystem etc. He is still at sea observing on Antarctic Bay so every other week a willing (or not so willing) volunteer trudges over to Maivken to collect poo for him. We said we would while we were there so we dutifully headed down to the beach to perform our duties. Since I have a dog and am therefore used to the disgusting job I was designated ‘poo picker’ and collected while Hazel dug them out (they had frozen into the snow). It was not the most pleasant of jobs and I am quite glad I don’t have to do that every week. To be honest I am not sure that we didn’t accidentally collect Elephant Seal poo but since we couldn’t ask anyone on the beach who had deposited what it was a little hit or miss.

Hopefully we will make it to Harpon soon but till then we are all rejuvenated by a couple of nights off base and I am ready to throw myself into another week of boating and maintenance.

I will try and persuade Hazel to give me some of her photos since she does take much better ones than me, but in the meantime here are mine: